10 Big Breakthroughs: A History Of Accelerating Technology Innovation

Pages

All of the accelerating current technology trends have their roots, says Kurzweil, in "historical" developments including early communication. The first human invention, says Kurzweil, was language. "It took a few hundred thousand years for that to catch on," he says. From there, language evolved to "written language," says Kurzweil, who gave a speech last year commemorating the 500th anniversary of the University of Basel, which opened its doors 20 years after Guttenberg invented the printing press.